Can we talk about the early theosophy's influence on Theravada in Sri Lanka? I notice the teacher of a currently very influential Theravada monk is a Theosophist based on the wiki. Did it influence many monks at that time? I also read that theosophy has influenced Mrs Rhys David to re interpret parts of the pali canon.

form wrote:Can we talk about the early theosophy's influence on Theravada in Sri Lanka?

That depends on which version of Buddhism (what Blavatsky called "bodhism") Theosophy promoted in Sri Lanka.

The renowned anthropologist Gananath Obeyesekere coined the term ‘Protestant Buddhism’ in order to highlight Buddhist practices that emerged from the activities of Olcott in contrast to the religious practices that were predominantly practiced by Sinhala peasants. This so-called ‘Protestant Buddhism’ was heavily influenced by the rationalist ideology of the Theosophical movement and attractive to newly emerged urbanized middle and upper class Sinhala-Buddhists. http://hsf.bgu.ac.il/cjt/files/Teosophi ... WASIRI.htm

This writer with books published by the Theosophy society seems to be a serious one without scandal. His awakening involved seeing impermanence which is in line with Buddhism. Personally, I take him quite seriously.

And what do you guys think of kundalini with respect to the angle of Theravada Buddhism and last but not least gopi krishnan, he seems like highly spiritually developed fellow.

Will wrote:
But if what is most important for some of you is doctrinal and intellectual differences, that you cannot learn from the example of those who saved the Dhamma from extinction - pitiable followers of Buddha you be.

Just want to make it clear, I have nothing against that and I have great respect for him and his outstanding student.

Thanks for bringing that link. Here is the paragraph you mention:

Thero continued his studies after becoming a monk and later became a scholar in Buddhism and languages. Thero entered Ananda College, Colombo in 1919 and became a teacher of the same school in 1922.[5] Unusually for a Theravada teacher, he publicly studied some other traditions, such as Mahayana Buddhism, mantra and esoteric yoga. This is understandable when one realizes that he was a theosophist as well as a Buddhist. He was a self learner in most of his areas of studies.

Seems like there is no claim that supports the assertion that he was a theosophist. I'm wondering what it means that "he was a theosophist"? Did he have a card certifiying him as member? Did he regularly attend meeting? Did he attend seances? I am not trying to be derisive here....I am just wondering what it means that he allegedly was a theosophist. I'm hoping that there is some other source that can comment on this.
chownah

To any Theosophists who might post here in the future, I mean no disrespect or disparagement to your sincerely held religious beliefs. Whether or not Buddhists should be involved in or connected to Theosophy is a different matter altogether.

Before converting to Buddhism, I believed Madame Blavatsky when she claimed to understand Buddhism (what she termed bodhism) better than the Buddha himself, something which I now regret.

Santi253 wrote:
Before converting to Buddhism, I believed Madame Blavatsky when she claimed to understand Buddhism (what she termed bodhism) better than the Buddha himself, something which I now regret.

That is a big big claim. How can she understand better than the originator? It is just impossible. Maybe she meant she knew how to bridge it for the modern mind.

form wrote:
That is a big big claim. How can she understand better than the originator? It is just impossible. Maybe she meant she knew how to bridge it for the modern mind.

According to Madame Blavatsky, the Buddha only founded the institutional religion of Buddhism, while the real truth is the esoteric doctrine which she called "Bodhism."

Esoteric Bodhism. Secret wisdom or intelligence from the Greek esotericos “inner”, and the Sanskrit Bodhi, “knowledge”, intelligence— in contradistinction to Buddhi, “the faculty of knowledge or intelligence” and Buddhism, the philosophy or Law of Buddha (the Enlightened). Also written “ Budhism”, from Budha (Intelligence and Wisdom) the Son of Soma.http://theosophy.org/Blavatsky/Theosoph ... egloss.htm

Santi253 wrote:

Blavatsky elsewhere uses the term “budhism” (which she also terms “bodhism,” “deeper understanding”) for this teaching and she clearly makes a distinction between “Buddhism’ and “Esoteric Budhism.”

She equates the latter with “the ancient Wisdom-Religion” and states that it is not “the religious system preached by Gautama Buddha.” But elsewhere she fails to make this distinction, so it is not absolutely clear what she means by the term “Esoteric Buddhism.”

In any event, whatever it is called, she is unequivocal in stating (idem.), “There is an esoteric doctrine, a soul-ennobling philosophy, behind the outward body of ecclesiastical Buddhism,” even though this idea is not accepted by most Buddhists and is explicitly denied in the Theravada Tripitaka texts.http://theosophy.ph/encyclo/index.php?t ... ,_Esoteric

Before converting to Buddhism, I LOVED Madame Blavatsky, which is why I was willing to look the other way at things, like her claim that Satan is the "one and only god" of this world.

Santi253 wrote:

It is “Satan who is the god of our planet and the only god,” and this without any allusive metaphor to its wickedness and depravity. For he is one with the Logos, “the first son, eldest of the gods,” in the order of microcosmic (divine) evolution; Saturn (Satan), astronomically, “is the seventh and last in the order of macrocosmic emanation, being the circumference of the kingdom of which Phoebus (the light of wisdom, also the Sun) is the centre.” The Gnostics were right, then, in calling the Jewish god “an angel of matter,” or he who breathed (conscious) life into Adam, and he whose planet was Saturn.http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-1-13.htm

As far as I know, Theravada Buddhism traditionally rejects, or at least ignores, esotericism, which is problematic for someone who, like Madame Blavatsky, insists upon the importance of esoteric doctrine.

Amitâbha. The Chinese perversion of the Sanskrit Amrita Buddha, or the “Immortal Enlightened”, a name of Gautama Buddha. The name has such variations as Amita, Abida, Amitâya, etc., and. is explained as meaning both “Boundless Age” and “Boundless Light”. The original conception of the ideal of an impersonal divine light has been anthropomorphized with time.http://theosophy.org/Blavatsky/Theosoph ... egloss.htm

As I've explained elsewhere on this forum, the deeper meaning of Pure Land practice is to awaken the Buddha within, rather than petitioning an external being, something that she would agree with in the above quote.

This is so wrong on so many more levels than the above false etymology that I don't even know where to begin.

Amitābha is considered to have been a possible candidate for a title of the historical Buddha in Greco-Bactrian Buddhism, but that is hardly proven. And that is only a modern conjecture based on modern evidence (the discovery of the Gāndhārī texts), M Blavatsky would not have had access to such speculative theories, marking this as potentially her own fantasy.

Even if Amitâbha was a Chinese word, Chinese EBTs were not translated from Sanskrit, thus the amṛta --> amitābha confusion she suggests is even more unfounded.

如無為，如是難見、不動、不屈、不死、無漏、覆蔭、洲渚、濟渡、依止、擁護、不流轉、離熾焰、離燒然、流通、清涼、微妙、安隱、無病、無所有、涅槃。Like this is the uncreated, like this is that which is difficult to realize, with no moving, no bending, no dying. Utterly lacking secretions and smothered in the dark, it is the island shore. Where there is ferrying, it is the crossing. It is dependency's ceasing, it is the end of circulating transmissions. It is the exhaustion of the flame, it is the ending of the burning. Flowing openly, pure and cool, with secret subtlety, and calm occultation, lacking ailment, lacking owning, nirvāṇa.Asaṁskṛtadharmasūtra, Sermon on the Uncreated Phenomenon, T99.224b7, Saṁyuktāgama 890